Former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli takes aim at BBC's John Inverdale for his 'disgusting' comments about her looks in 2013 and opens up about anorexia battle

Former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli has opened up about John Inverdale's 'disgusting' comments about her back in 2013. The same year she won the title, Inverdale said on BBC Radio 5 Live: 'I just wonder if her dad, because he has obviously been the most influential person in her life, did say to her when she was 12, 13, 14 maybe, "listen, you are never going to be, you know, a looker. You are never going to be somebody like a Sharapova, you're never going to be 5ft 11, you're never going to be somebody with long legs, so you have to compensate for that".'Of Inverdale's cruel remarks, the French woman told The Times: 'I still can’t understand the comment he made.'How on earth, when someone just achieved a childhood dream, can you say that? It is just absolutely disgusting, so yes, unfortunately it’s been a constant pressure. And it’s only on female [players]. A male would never be treated that way.'Bartoli, 42, decided to retire 40 days after her greatest triumph at Wimbledon and went on to suffer with life-threatening anorexia in the years after calling it a day, having had her weight scrutinised during her career.She lost 30kg and ended up on a stomach-feeding tube in hospital for months in Italy before finally being discharged in November 2016. Marion Bartoli (left) won the Wimbledon title in 2013 after John Inverdale (right) made 'disgusting' comments on BBC Radio 5 LiveLeading up to those dark days, she was due to play in a Legends event for Wimbledon but was confronted about how unhealthy she appeared. She explained: 'Philip Brook, who was chairman of the All England Club, told me, "Marion, we can’t let you play in the Legends event. You’re not in good enough health". 'That’s when I really hit the lowest of the low, because you can take everything away from me, but not tennis. Tennis is my true passion. When the racket is in my hand, that’s when I’m happiest, so that’s when I thought, "I have to get myself back up somehow. I can’t let this destroy me". 'I will be forever thankful to Philip because I was in such denial that I think otherwise I would have kept hurting myself. He was strong enough to tell me and that got me to understand that I had to recover.'The 2013 Wimbledon run was Bartoli's fairytale ending and Inverdale's comments were aired in the hours before she played Germany's Sabine Lisicki. When his views caused outrage among tennis fans and the public and were then relayed to Bartoli at the time, she said: 'It doesn't matter, honestly. I am not blonde, yes. That is a fact. Have I dreamt about having a model contract? No. I'm sorry.'But have I dreamed about winning Wimbledon? Absolutely, yes.'Inverdale then addressed the controversy the following day before the men's final, saying: 'Before we start, I probably ought to just briefly return to a clumsy phrase that I used about Marion Bartoli which has understandably caused something of a furore.'The point I was trying to make, in a rather ham-fisted kind of way, was that in a world where the public perception of tennis players is that they're all 6ft tall Amazonian athletes, Marion - who is the Wimbledon champion - bucks that trend. Bartoli went on to suffer with anorexia and was discharged from hospital in 2016, the same year this photo was taken in New York Bartoli, pictured at Wimbledon this year, now coaches Harriet Dart and is happy and healthy again 'She is a fantastic example to all young people that it's attitude and will and determination together, obviously, with talent that, in the end, does get you to the top.'So I have apologised to Marion by letter if any offence was caused and I do hope that we can leave the matter there now.'Inverdale, now 69, was dropped from the BBC's Wimbledon coverage in 2015 and replaced by Clare Balding. In March of that year, he'd made another blunder during coverage of Cheltenham, accidentally saying the c-word before apologising for a 'slip of the tongue'. He no longer works in mainstream broadcasting but is an adviser for Track Radio and occasionally appears on podcasts. Bartoli, meanwhile, coaches Britain's Harriet Dart, who recently won her maiden Women's Tennis Association singles title at the Guangzhou Open. Bartoli is married to Belgian football player Yahya Boumediene and they share a six-year-old daughter.